posted
Help!! I have something eating my tomatoes and I'm not sure what it it. My first ripe tomato was completely eaten overnight and I was told to set out some rat traps. I did this and caught a rat the first night. Since then I have not caught anymore rats, but something is still eating my tomatoes. Two have been about half eaten, but usually there is a hole about the size of a quarter, just below the stem. It usually eats the red ones but has eaten maybe three green ones. The holes are almost all identical and I can't imagine a rat doing this. Does anyone have an idea what it might be??? (Also the leaves are not being eaten at all) Thanks for the help. yaya
Plants: 4 | From: San Jose, California | Registered: Jun 2003
| Seeded: 67.122.118.161
posted
Your problem is most likely caused by slugs. While Snails only feed on the surface of the fruit, the Slugs hollow out the fruit.
Try to stake the tomatoes to get the fruit off the ground and away from slugs and snails. Snails & Slugs are most active at night and on cloudy days. On sunny days they seek hiding places out of the heat and sun.
Beer baited traps have been used to trap slugs;
Barriers of ash and diatomaceous earth heaped in a band 1 inch high and 3 inches wide around the garden have also been used, but the barrier lose their effectiveness after becoming wet and therefore difficult to maintain.
A vertical copper screen erected 6 inches high and buried several inches below the soil is effective in controlling both snails and slugs.
Another ways is just to handpick (with gloves) them and the captured snails crushed/slugs deposited in a plastic bag and disposed off in the trash bin.
Source: Pests of the Garden and Small Farm by Mary Louse Flint, University of California-Davis.
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Amor est vitae essentia. Love is the essence of life.
posted
Thank you both so much for the help. I thought about mice and slugs, but, and I should have put this in originally. The ones at and near the bottom are very rarely eaten, the ones that are getting it are from about mid plant and up, some are deep in the middle of the plant and some are right out on the surface. Darndest thing that I've ever seen. I've been growing tomatoes for years and this is a first for me and it's got me frustrated beyond belief!!! Well, thanks and please let me know if you can think of anything else that it might be. yaya
Plants: 4 | From: San Jose, California | Registered: Jun 2003
| Seeded: 67.122.118.161
posted
Woodchucks eat the fruit..... Do you have any of those around>? Orginally the rat (ewwwwwww, I hate those things, we had some in the neighbor hood one of the very first years we were here..YUCK!!) But that's what the holes may have been from, but if you say the ones are eaten half way up, the woodchucks wood be my next choice of pest!!!! I know they eat those and strawberries to boot!!!! If it's those, you have to see them in the very early morning or late in the evening. Sneaky buggers....... Weezie
Do you have ants around??? I have seen ants do the holes about the size of a quarter or so in my strawberries too from them, I've seen them in there eating, there will be 3,6,12 at a time doing this, team effort. That might be another possiblity??
* * * * Weezie
Don't forget to be kind to strangers. For some who have done this have entertained angels without realizing it. - Bible - Hebrews 13:2
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